Item Catalogue and Batch Tracking

Every product and material your dry fruit business handles - raw almonds, packaged cashews, 250g pouches, cardboard boxes - lives in the Item Catalogue. Before you can buy, sell, manufacture, or move anything in the system, it must exist as an item. This page covers how to set up items correctly and how the batch and expiry tracking system works.

Item catalogue list showing dry fruit products with item code, item group, and stock information

Who Uses This Feature

Role	What They Do
Administrator	Creates and maintains item records, sets up variants and pricing
Procurement Officer	References items when creating purchase orders
Warehouse Manager	Uses item records for stock entries and batch management
Sales Executive	Selects items when creating quotations and sales orders
Quality Inspector	Links quality inspection templates to items

Before You Start

To create an item you need:

The item’s name and a classification (Item Group)
The Unit of Measure (e.g., KG, Gram, Box, Packet)
Applicable HSN code for GST
Whether the item is tracked by batch number
Whether it has an expiry date

Setting Up a New Item

Step 1: Open the Item form

Go to Stock workspace and click Item under the Items Catalogue section, then click New.

New item form showing fields for item name, item group, unit of measure, and stock settings

Step 2: Fill in the basic details

Field	What to Enter	Example
Item Code	A unique code for this product. The system can auto-generate it or you can type your own	ALM-500G
Item Name	The full product name as it will appear on invoices and reports	Almonds Premium 500g
Item Group	The category this item belongs to. Create groups like “Raw Nuts”, “Packaged Products”, “Packaging Material”	Packaged Products
Default Unit of Measure	The primary unit you buy, sell, or stock this item in	KG or Packet
Standard Selling Rate	Your default selling price per unit	650.00
Valuation Rate	The cost per unit, used to calculate stock value	450.00

Step 3: Enable stock maintenance

Turn on Maintain Stock if this is a physical product that should be tracked in the warehouse. Leave it off for service items or digital products.

Step 4: Configure batch and expiry tracking

This is critical for dry fruit products. Turn on Has Batch No for any item that needs to be tracked by batch. Once this is on, every stock movement for this item must specify a batch number. Turn on Has Expiry Date to track when each batch expires. With this setting:

The system records the expiry date when each batch is received
The Pick List and Delivery Note will always use the earliest-expiring batch first (First Expiry First Out)
The Batch Item Expiry Status report shows you all batches with their expiry dates

Set Shelf Life in Days to tell the system how long this product is expected to last. When a new batch is created, the expiry date is calculated automatically from the date of manufacture.

Item form showing batch number, expiry date, and shelf life settings enabled for a dry fruit product

Step 5: Set the HSN code for GST

In the Taxes tab, enter the correct HSN code for this item. Dry fruits typically fall under HSN 0813 (dried fruits) or related codes. The correct HSN code ensures that GSTR-1 and HSN-wise reports are accurate. You can also assign an Item Tax Template here if this item has a specific GST rate that differs from your default.

Step 6: Configure reorder levels

In the Inventory tab, set the Reorder Level and Reorder Quantity for each warehouse. When stock falls below the reorder level, the system can automatically create a Material Request.

Step 7: Add purchase and sales units of measure

If you buy in KG but sell in 250g Packets, you can define a UOM conversion:

Go to the Units of Measure (UOM) tab on the item
Add a row: 1 Packet = 0.25 KG

The system will then handle the conversion automatically in transactions.

Field Guide

Field	Description
Item Code	Unique identifier for this item used in all transactions
Item Name	Human-readable name for the product
Item Group	Category the item belongs to for reporting and organisation
Default UOM	The base unit all stock quantities are stored in
Maintain Stock	Whether this item is tracked physically in the warehouse
Has Batch No	Whether each receipt of this item is assigned a batch number
Has Expiry Date	Whether each batch has a recorded expiry date
Shelf Life in Days	Used to auto-calculate expiry date from manufacturing date
Reorder Level	Minimum stock quantity before a replenishment request is triggered
Reorder Quantity	How much to order when restocking
HSN Code	Harmonised System Nomenclature code for GST classification
Standard Selling Rate	Default selling price (can be overridden per customer or price list)
Valuation Rate	Cost price used to value the stock in the warehouse
Disabled	Marks an item as inactive without deleting it

Managing Batches

What is a batch?

A batch is a specific lot of a product received or produced at the same time. When you receive 200 KG of almonds from Supplier A on 15 March, that entire delivery becomes one batch. It gets a batch number, a manufacturing date, and an expiry date. Every time that stock moves (sold, transferred, consumed in manufacturing), the system records which batch it came from. This gives you complete traceability from supplier delivery to customer invoice.

How batches are created

Batches are created automatically when:

A Purchase Receipt is submitted (one batch per receipt line, or you can specify the batch number from the supplier’s label)
A Work Order is completed and finished goods are received into stock

You can also create batches manually from Stock workspace → Batch.

Batch fields

Field	Description
Batch ID	The unique batch identifier. Can be your internal code or the supplier’s batch code
Item	The item this batch belongs to
Manufacturing Date	When this batch was produced or the date the supplier packed it
Expiry Date	When this batch should no longer be sold
Supplier	Which supplier this batch came from
Batch Quantity	How much stock from this batch is currently in the warehouse

Batch record showing batch ID, item, expiry date, supplier, and current quantity

Item Variants

If you sell the same product in multiple pack sizes - for example, Cashews W240 in 100g, 250g, 500g, and 1kg - you can set up item variants instead of creating four separate items.

Create a base item: Cashews W240
Enable Has Variants and set Variant Based On to Attribute
Create an Item Attribute called Pack Size with values: 100g, 250g, 500g, 1kg
Generate the variants

The system creates four separate item records that all share the same parent, making reporting by product line much easier.

Notifications and Alerts

The system does not send automatic email alerts when stock expires, but the Batch Item Expiry Status report and the Stock Ageing report give you the visibility you need to act proactively. Best practice: schedule a weekly review of the Batch Item Expiry Status report every Monday morning to identify any batches expiring within the next 30 days.

Best Practices

Always use a consistent item naming convention so items are easy to find in the search. For example: [Product Name] [Grade] [Pack Size] → “Almonds Premium 500g”
Enable batch tracking for every raw material and finished good. This is essential for traceability and for managing expiry
Set up reorder levels for fast-moving items so the system reminds you before you run out
Keep the item catalogue clean: use the Disabled flag rather than deleting old items, so historical transactions remain accurate
Assign HSN codes during item setup, not at invoice time, to avoid errors in GST filings

Procurement - Using items in purchase orders and receipts
Inventory Management - Stock entries, transfers, and reconciliation
Quality Inspection - Setting up and running incoming inspections by item
Sales - Using items in quotations, orders, and invoices
GST Compliance - HSN codes and tax templates

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Who Uses This Feature

Before You Start